Q.1 Khap panchayats are extra-constitutional bodies in Haryana that decry (A) /decree(B) institutionalised atrocities.

The Khap leaders are universally criticised for imposing regressive diktats that fetter (A)/curb(B) women.

Patriarchal and misogynist, Khaps have played a key role in reducing Haryana’s sex ratio to an immeasurable (A)/abysmal (B) low.

The recent apex court directive against Khap panchayats holds the district administration including the police accountable for the prevention of the barbaric acts carried out at the behest(A)/recommendation(B) of the Khaps.

Q.2 The government deserves to be congratulated wholeheartedly for at long last bringing to an end one of the most pernicious (A) / pernickety (B) vestiges of the license-permit Raj.

Early this week, a notification was issued taking (A)/delisting (B) the last 20 products off the "reservation list" - the list of products that can legally be made only by small and medium enterprises, or SMEs.

Typically for such economic restrictions, this reservation for SMEs was counter-productive: not only did it stunt the sector, but it ensured the perpetuation (A)/perpetration (B) of monopolies.

The value of trade as the engine of domestic reform can hardly be underemphasized (A)/overemphasized (B).

Q.3 The rise of Indian athletes in global rankings across a variety of sports is a de facto (A)/critical (B) requirement for developing sustainable mass interest in these sports.

This needs to be complimented (A)/complemented (B) by some other initiatives, such as developing television-friendly competitive formats.

Notwithstanding early hurdles in invoking (A)/evoking (B) interest, it is heartening to see the emergence of Indian Premier League (IPL) formats in hockey, football, badminton and kabaddi.

The entry of big broadcasters into a sport invariably nurtures (A)/pushes (B) the ecosystem towards better facilities, training and production quality.

Q.4 The government deserves to be congratulated wholeheartedly for at long last bringing to an end one of the most pernicious (A) / pernickety (B) vestiges of the license-permit Raj.

Early this week, a notification was issued taking (A)/delisting (B) the last 20 products off the "reservation list" - the list of products that can legally be made only by small and medium enterprises, or SMEs.

Typically for such economic restrictions, this reservation for SMEs was counter-productive: not only did it stunt the sector, but it ensured the perpetuation (A)/perpetration (B) of monopolies.

The value of trade as the engine of domestic reform can hardly be underemphasized (A)/overemphasized (B).

Q.5 In 1993, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and in 1994 it set up a second international tribunal to try the perpetrators (A)/ propagandists (B) of the Rwandan genocide.

Critics claimed that the tribunals were established to show (A)/cover (B) America's and Europe's shameful reluctance to intervene.

Perhaps, but it is also true that western powers had never before reached for such a fig leaf (A)/red herring(B).

Despite (A)/ With regard to (B) slow beginnings, heavy expense and many delays, both tribunals are bold attempts at implementing international humanitarian law.

Q.6 The Parthenon, along with Cheops’s pyramid, Wren’s churches and Mansard’s palaces —ranks as an architectural archetype(A)/prototype (B).

The builders of the Parthenon were steeped (A)/steered (B) by tradition, yet free to experiment.

They worked to (A)/for (B) extreme precision, yet the final result was anything but rigid.

Knowing that long horizontal lines appear to sag, even though they are absolutely straight, horizontal elements were deliberately curved and the vertical columns “fattened” in the middle to compensate (A)/accommodate (B) for the vagaries of the human eye.

Q.7 European scholars rightly (A)/wrongly (B) viewed all great powers in history as global powers.

However, the unipolar world of the British and American empires was a historical milestone (A)/ aberration(B).

For most, global moments were short-lived. Even so (A)/At best (B), they were continental powers.

Multipolarity or polycentric dispersal (A)/dispensing (B) of power and prosperity defines the normal state of the world.

Q.8 The loss of the presidency in 2008 thrust the Republican party into a period of intense ideological turmoil, which strengthened (A)/upended (B) the moral consensus.

On some issues, including health care and climate change, the tea-party revolution drove Republicans further to the right, creating the new orthodoxy (A)/schism (B).

But on other issues, such as foreign policy and gay marriage, differences that had been papered (A)/debated(B) over suddenly broke free.

The big loss in 2008 allowed a cabal(A)/faction(B) of the Republican elite to switch sides.

Q.9 Magna Carta was an ephemeral (A)/abiding (B) agreement between 25 nobles and King John, setting out certain baronial rights in England in 1215.

The original agreement was in effect only for a short time after the 15 June sealing, after (A)/ before(B) being voided by Pope Innocent III.

Ostensibly (A)/ Nevertheless (B), the Magna Carta has rocked the Western world for centuries, setting off tremors that still reverberate in the US Bill of Rights about individual liberties and the concept of speaking truth to power.

Until (A)/But while (B) the vellum sheets of Magna Carta are preserved, there is a real debate in the world over whether or not the freedoms that have their beginnings in the charter might well be on the decline.

Q.10 Just by maintaining green pockets or isolated reserves humans cannot forever maintain the ecological process and functions that are at the core of the ecosystem but (A)/ and thus (B) forestall environmental disasters.

It is virtually impossible to enclose nature within any boundaries. Nature spans rather than (A)/as well as (B) spills over borders.

It is only by inquiring (A)/ enquiring (B) into ecology, economics, and culture and by asking how they are interwoven that now we can move on ahead.

Nevertheless (A)/After all (B), the borders within which we have tried to sequester nature against the siege of human demographic and economic growth are important symbols for they remind us of what we would like to secure and against what.